Cruise Day 7 and 8

Sorry, life got a little busy the past week. Here is the final cruise post:

On day 7 we reached out final port, Great Stirrup Cay, Bahamas. This is Norwegian's private island. We again tendered in, but this time the tenders were much bigger and open. We met up with Ted and Beth at breakfast then headed over to the island. It was the most beautiful white sand beach I have ever seen. We grabbed some chairs, and got some life vests (required to do any snorkeling here.) Brian, Ted and I headed out to do some snorkeling. After that we sat on the beach for a while reading/studying. For lunch we headed over to the BBQ put on by the cruise ship staff. After eating, we went back over and hung out on the beach a little more; after all we had to wait an hour to get in the water. :) Beth sneaked off to the little island market and bought me a bracelet similar to one I'd been looking at in Samana, but didn't want to pay $30 for. I'm telling ya...these guys were the greatest!! Brian, Ted and I headed back out to do some more snorkeling. This time we headed out past our little cove. Brian got caught in some seaweed and touched something a little jelly like. We both think it was probably the top of a small jelly fish. While out in "open water" the wind started to pick up and thus the waves. I began to get a little freaked out. I told the guys I wanted to head back in. While heading back a guy tapped me on the shoulder and said "look," (pointing just past me) "a Barracuda." I put my mask back on and checked him out. Yeah, seeing a Barracuda do not make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. THEY. ARE. CREEPY. After looking at him for a while I decided I'd drank enough salt water for one day and with the waves getting worse my energy was running out fast! When I got back into the little cove I took my time getting back to shore. I had stopped to take a break (my goggles would not stop fogging up--and I did spit in them!!) While standing there a woman shouted at me not to move. Yeah, I'm standing in the ocean, water up to my neck and she tells me "not to move!" Can you guess how fast my heart was racing. She said there is a Stingray right next to you. From what I know of Stingrays they aren't normally dangerous, but I know that's what killed Steve Irwin so I was a little freaked! I quickly put my goggles back on and checked it out for myself. When I looked down it was about 5 feet from me. I backed away, but still followed it around for a while (at a safe distance.) When we all finished snorkeling we caught a tender back to the ship. Cleaned up for dinner. Brian had made reservations for dinner at Cagney's Stake house. YUMMY!! Ted and Beth had tried it a few nights before, so they didn't come with us. But we did meet up with them for the show that night. Afterwards Brian wasn't feeling so well so he headed back to our cabin. Ted, Beth and I went upstairs to the "Spinnaker Lounge" for another show. Here are the pictures from day 7:

Our ship:


Us on the beach:


Out between those rocks is where we snorkeled:


The last sunset of our cruise:


Us at Cagney's, the green bracelet is the one Beth bought me:


On Day 8 we arrived in Miami before we even woke up. We met Ted and Beth for breakfast in the Summer Palace. We took our time eating. While we ate we talked and decided to ride together to the airport. We get talking about our flights and found out that we were on the same flight to Cincinnati. We headed back to our rooms got our bags and met back up on the deck for disembarktion. We grabbed a cab, got to the airport with plenty of time. We hung out in the airport for about 2 hours then boreded the plane. Once in Cincinnati we quickly exchanged info and hugs with the Cochrans. They headed off to catch their connecting flight and so did we. We had about an hour layover, so not wanting to repeat the error of the trip to Miami we checked where our terminal was the explored the airport a bit. On the plane we watched Ice Age, slept, had some drinks and cookies, and at about 7:00 we looked out the window to see Logan benith us. We both were ready to get home and see out kids. We finally arrived home at about 8:00 on Halloween. It was so good to be home, but I wouldn't trade that trip for anything! It was FANTASTIC!! Here are a few pictures from the last day:

Logan out my window:


We were getting really bored:

Cruise Day 5 and 6

Day 5:
On Wednesday we docked at Tortola, British Virgin Islands. We headed upstairs to grab some breakfast and ran into Ted and Beth. We all ate together and discussed what we wanted to do that day. Brian really wanted to check into renting scooters. We got off the ship and headed to find some. We found them and they were pretty cheep for the whole day!! The guy that rented them to us was a really nice and funny guy. He kept teasing the Brian and Ted that they'd better not let us women drive. He gave us a map and told us the best places to stop. We got to wear the coolest helmets ever! We headed off to explore the island.

I think the guys were in testosterone heaven. It was a ton of fun; the drive was beautiful and it was really easy to navigate. I only had to remind Brian once or twice to stay on the LEFT hand side of the road. We stopped at a beautiful beach, a rum distillery, the highest point in the Virgin Islands, and a couple other little places. When we had reached the point where we were supposed to turn and complete our circle and head back we still had time to kill, so we decided to venture off to the Eastern side of the island. It was so much fun being able to make the choice of when and where to stop. We often got glances from people on the taxis. We even chatted with some people at he distillery and they were shocked at how inexpensive the scooters were.

Later when we got back to the ship we cleaned up, had dinner, and headed off to the show. This night they had another comedy show with a group called Sharkbait. They were two guys that juggled and did many other things. And they were by far my favorite act! Here are some pictures from Tortola:

This was one of the taxis. I had to take a picture for Abby. It's painted in a Little Mermaid theme.


Brian ready to go:


Beth and Ted on their scooter:


This was the most beautiful beach ever!This picture doesn't do it justice.


I pulled a 'Brian' in this picture. His eyes are normally the ones that are closed.


This is the rum distillery; it stunk so bad inside!


More rum distillery. They said this building was 500 years old:


Beautiful huh?!


Brian and me on our scooter...I know you're so jealous of the helmets. :)


Brian, Me, Beth (she's tinny!), and Ted at the highest point in the VI.


Our cruise ship from the highest point in the VI:


Brian and me at the show that night:


Our towel animal that night...we couldn't decide what it really was. I thought a seal. What do you think?


On day 6 we had another day at sea. Brian and I just hung out. I went up to the sundeck for a while to do some more studying and preparing for a play that I'm interpreting on Saturday. I headed back down to the room after baking in the sun for a good 2 hours. Brian had already eaten lunch so I went up to grab a bite. On the way back to our room after lunch I noticed a bunch of people heading to the theater so I went to check it out. It was a crew talent show, most of it was ok but there was one act that made me laugh so hard. I can't get the video to upload, but basically it was all our cruise directors (those incharge of the enterainment) dressed in togas (bed sheets) and carrying pitchers of water. They would take a drink and spit the water back out at each other in different ways.

After the show I went back to the room and took a little nap. When I woke up Brian was there; we got ready for dinner. We went with Ted and Beth to Mambos, a Mexican resteraunt, that night. Then we went to the Chocoholic Buffet. They turned the buffet upstairs into everything chocolate! After that we headed to the show. It was the dance company again. They did a Garden of the Geisha show that night. After Brian and I headed up on deck to have our hot chocolate and wander.

Brian and me at the Chocoholic Buffet:


Beth and Ted at the Chocoholic Buffet:

Cruise days 3 and 4

So to continue on...

On Monday we finally had reached our first port; Samana, Dominican Republic. We started the day off by heading down to "Bar City" to get our tender tickets. In line in front of us there was a really nice couple that we started chatting with. Once we got our tickets we headed up stairs to get some breakfast and wait for our tender number to be called. Once on the tender the same couple that was in front of us in the line was on our tender sitting across from us. We began chatting with them some more and quickly hit it off. By the time we got to the island (about 20 min.) we had decided to do something together since neither couple had booked a shore excursion. When we got on the island we decided to hire a "taxi" (really it was a dirt bike pulling a little 4 seater wagon thing) to take us around the island. First we went to a beautiful waterfall, then on to some shopping, and finally to the beach. On the way to the beach we had to go up a farily steep hill. The dirt bike couldn't pull us up so the driver asked us to get out and walk. After just a few steps the driver told us to get back in and he wove his way back and forth across the road and up the hill. The driving over there was crazy! My favorite part of Samana was while at the beach Beth began giving the local kids some candy. She had a mix of candy and when the kids ate the hot tamales their faces were priceless!

We headed back to the ship about a hour prior to "All Aboard" time. We wanted to make sure we got there! We went and cleaned up then headed off to a show and dinner with Ted and Beth! Here are the pictures from day 3:

This is the view of the island from our room (that boat is one of the tenders.)


Brian and I out on the deck waiting for out tender to be called.


It rained a bit that morning and I caught this picture of a half rainbow.


This is the tender that took us to the island. We had just gotten off.


I thought the houses there were crazy. Some had straw roofs like this one others were just rundown sheds.


Brian and me at the waterfall:


This waterfall was beautiful!


This just showes you the street. If I hadn't been scared for my life I would have taken more pictures to show the crazyness.


Brian at the beach we went to. You also can see our cruise ship. Our's is the one on the left.


This is Beth with all the kids she gave the treats to. The little boy in the middle had the funniest faces when he ate the hot tamales.


On day 4 we had arrived at the next port; St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. We didn't have to get tender tickets this time because the ship was able to dock. So we woke up had breakfast, tried calling Ted and Beth, then headed out. When we got ashore we quickly called home to talk to our kiddos. This was the only time we were able to call home since the rate for cruise ships is $8/min. After calling we started walking toward the shops and ran into Ted and Beth. We spent the rest of the day shopping and wandering. We bought some chocolates and had them delivered to our ship, I bought a skirt and a doll for Abby. We decided to split up for lunch then meet back up and go over to a beach for some snorkeling.

As Brian and I were headed back to the ship we decided to stop at a grocery store and bought some drinks (on board the ship a coke was $2.50 and you didn't even get the whole can!) Then we also stopped at a Philipino store to get some treats for Brian. We went and ate back on board the ship then met up with Ted and Beth again, hired a taxi (a real one this time) and went over to Coci Beach. Snorkeling was fun, and the locals at the beach gave us some dog bones to feed to the fish. At first I thought they were crazy, but the fish loved them. as soon as you put the bone in the water the fish would come right up to you almost swarming. It was a little creepy, but cool at the same time!

Once back on the ship we cleaned, ordered room service and went to the show (Second City comedy show) with Beth and Ted. After we wandered around on deck and drank our hot chocolate. That night when we got back to our rooms our chocolates were sitting on our bed. Here are some pictures from day number four:

These are all the taxies lined up outside our boat in a 'U' shaped 3 line drive. It was crazy!


The back half of our boat. I couldn't get the whole thing in the picture.


Brian talking to Abby.


Brian and me with our ship in the background.


We passed by this iguana and I thought it was fake. It wasn't. It was real and HUGE!


Brian by the front of our boat.


Brian snorkeling:


Night life on the ship:


Our chocolates: YUMMY!!

Cruise day 1 and 2

I'm going to try to tackle this a few days at a time rather than do a full post with the whole cruise on it.

Our adventure began last Friday (Oct 23rd) as we headed to the airport at 10:30pm. Once we got there, parked, road the shuttle into the airport, checked in, and we're waiting at our terminal we took some Motrin PM to help us sleep on the plane. Once we boarded and were ready for take off (1:00 AM) Brian and I were both TIRED! This was by far the WORST leg of our journey. It's not such a great idea to take sleeping pills on a "Red Eye" flight. We both were so tired, to that point where you feel totally disconnected from your body, but neither of us could sleep. The nearly 4 hours dragged on! When we finally landed in Atlanta, GA we had both had about 45 minutes of sleep, noncontinuous sleep. We grabbed a bite to eat thinking we had plenty of time to catch our next plane; after all we had an hour layover. We headed to our terminal about 20 minutes prior to the time the flight would leave. For any of you that have been to the Atlanta, GA airport you know that it is a series of buildings that you access by going underground. We soon became VERY aware of this and were running to catch our flight. We barley made it before they allowed stand-by people on board. During this hour and a half flight the two of us slept a bit more. We finally landed in Miami, got our luggage, and headed to the pier. Once on the ship we grabbed another bite to eat and checked everything out. Our cabin wasn't ready until about 2:00. As soon as it was ready we practically both ran to it; we had a nice long nap and at about 4:00 we woke up and headed back up on deck to watch departure. Here are a couple pictures:

Brian in our cabin, after our nap:


Brian on the sun deck with Miami in the background.


Me on the sun deck (this day was a bit overcast, but it got better as the days moved on.) That's Miami in the background.


Dinner that night at Indigo.


On Sunday we woke up had breakfast in our room (love that room service) and headed out for some fun. I went up to the sundeck to study a little bit (my NIC written test is this Friday--YIKES!) Brian came to find me and we headed off to a Tagalog language class. Of the 1000+ crew members on board about 600 or so were from the Philippines. Brian was always using his Tagalog to try and talk with them. After looking at the daily newspaper that they give us we noticed that they did offer LDS church services at 9:00 on Sunday. Of course this was AFTER the fact that we noticed. We were bummed, but next time FOR SURE we'll check into it. :) After grabbing a bite to eat we headed over to a Basketball tournament; which really turned into a bunch of guys just throwing the ball around. Then we headed up to bingo to see if we could win a suite for the remainder of the cruise. When we got there we realized it was more gambling than a friendly game of bingo. They literally had machines that people would just watch play the game for them. We opted not to do it, but still stayed to watch. After bingo we headed down to our room to get changed for dinner and a show. The show this night was great! It was a comedy show with David Naster. He was awesome! After the show we began what became our evening ritual. We headed up to the deck grabbed some hot chocolate and wandered around outside watching the waves, and marveling at the beauty of the ocean. Truly a cruise ship becomes almost magical at night! Here are the pictures from Day number 2:

Breakfast that morning:




Brian playing basketball. Notice the net ontop...so the ball won't go into the ocean. :)


Just wandering around on deck..this is the back of the boat.


Dinner that night at La Cucina. This was our formal night on the cruise. Man did other people go ALL out!